Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Road Trip Day 4: Las Vegas

We start our day by checking into the Imperial Palace casino/hotel. It was less than $40 a night and included tickets to see their auto collection and 2 tickets to Nathan Burton's comedy magic show. Not too shabby.

Ah, Vegas! If it weren't for the heat, the crime, the crowds, and the general sleaziness, I could see us living here.

Even Sexy Nerd enjoys shopping when it's on a fake Paris street.

We shared a plate of nachos at Margaritaville. Usually, it is one of our favorite Vegas stops, but this time didn't go very well. Not only did they never play the Margaritaville song and sacrifice the girl to the volcano (awesome), they ripped us off. When we ordered the nachos, the waitress casually asked if we want salsa. They're nachos. Sure we want salsa! That's a standard nacho ingredient, right? Surprise, surprise when we saw the additional $2 charge for salsa on our bill. Normally, it is just me who gets irked by things like this, but even Sexy Nerd thought the $2 hidden fee was a bit ridiculous. Shame on you, Margaritaville!

Still, the nachos were yummy. I think they are supposed to serve 4.

Maybe next time we will stay at the Flamingo. We always end up in their outdoor area taking photos anyway.

Good times.

Plus, they have cute little turtles!

Sexy Nerd wasn't too sure about all of the animals at the Flamingo casino though.

Kinda looks like a Vegas showgirl.

Continuing with our standard Las Vegas stops, it was time to share a sundae at Ghirardelli. At almost $9, sharing would have to do.

The Vegas pigeons like Ghirardelli too.

We are old. Shopping + nachos + ice cream = nap time!

We couldn't sleep too long though. It was time to use our free tickets for the Nathan Burton show. It was okay. Really, it seemed like it was the exact same trick, over and over again, just modified slightly, (an assistant would appear/dissappear from a box, then from a fake microwave, then from under a table, etc.)

We were really looking forward to our next show though - The Phantom of the Opera. With an hour to kill, we headed over to The Venetian and did some shopping along the way. Sexy Nerd took this opportunity to document the big flaw with my MBTs. No matter how tightly I tie them, the laces always come undone. Sure, I could just go buy some different shoelaces, but I've already invested so much into the shoes. I can't bear to spend another $1.99!

Almost showtime. We arrived at the Venetian too early though. Not wanting to sit around waiting inside a theater, we opted instead to ride the steep moving walkways a couple of times.

Who says you need money to have a good time? Darn, it just occurred to me how funny it would have been if I'd had Sexy Nerd copy the expression of the man on the poster behind him. There's no way around it. We're just going to have to go back.

Of course, there's no photography allowed in the theater, so here's just a sneaky shot we took of the stage before the show. Sexy Nerd and I have seen the movie version and another performance of the play, but the version at The Venetian was easily the best. Well, the best with exceptions. They wanted to make The Phantom seem more scary, so they tweaked a couple of things in the script, like downplaying the importance of keeping your hand at the level of your eye and they have Christine fearing that The Phantom will kill her, instead of Raoul. Hmmm, now that I think about it, this version was second best, after the movie. Still fun though.

Psyched up from the play, we energetically hit the town, determined to stay up as late as possible. After all, this was our last day in Vegas.